Here, it seems that X is approx $20k/year and Y is approx 5. Is that a good deal, cash for time?
A similar thought occurred to me when you compare typical working week vs GDP. If the French work H hours fewer than the Americans, but have similar GDP per capita, is the US model really economic progress? Is there any meaningful way you can make these comparisons?
@tomstafford I imagine an economist would say you can make these comparisons, although you'd have a big issue with stated vs. revealed preferences I imagine.
I might value Y years of somebody else's life at X, but I might be willing to give up a lot more X if the Ys were mine...
And we should probably weight all the Ys by health, just for added fun.
@VictimOfMaths revealed preferences would get you quickly in to coordination problems. (e.g. "Do US citizens have a revealled preference for the way US heathcare is organised (and costs), or is it a coordination game they can't extricate themselves from?")
And, yes, weight by health. Do you have a suspicion that might reduce the US-UK gap in this case?
Tom Stafford
Colin Angus